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Events of Interest: Week of January 6-11, 2013

Marcia S. Smith

Posted: 06-Jan-2013
Updated: 06-Jan-2013 05:03 PM

Happy New Year! Welcome to our first 2013 events of interest. The following events may be of interest in the coming week. After their marathon sessions last week as the 112th Congress ended and the 113th began, the House and Senate both are in recess this week. The House returns for legislative business next Monday, the 14th; the Senate on the 21st for the inauguration.

During the Week

Three major conferences are taking place this week:

the American Astronomical Society (AAS) winter meeting January 6-10 in Long Beach, CA where scientists present recent discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics and NASA holds "town hall" meetings to engage with that community. The NASA town halls and press briefings are shown in the day-by-day list below.

Also of particular note for those interested in planetary science is the Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) meeting in Atlanta on Thursday-Friday, January 10-11. In the most recent edition of the Planetary Exploration Newsletter, the chair and vice-chair of the DPS urge planetary science community members to listen to Jim Green's presentation at 8:30 am Eastern Standard Time (EST) on January 10, which will be webcast. Instructions on how to register for and listen to the webcast are on the OPAG website. Green apparently will address recent community concerns about the planetary science budget, especially for research and analysis (R&A), although he obviously will not be able to talk about the FY2014 budget, since it has not yet been released. There is enough uncertainty about the FY2013 budget in any case, with the sequester being delayed for two months, so the Damoclean sword continues to hang over the federal budget.